"I'll have him here before long, and then we shall have no further reason to worry. I wonder I hadn't thought of him before."
"Well, don't let the matter trouble you any longer. It is getting late, and you had better retire. You will need all the rest you can get."
"Rest, mother? I am not going to sleep until I have seen Mr. Calvert, and explained the matter to him."
"But you cannot see him to-night."
"I must."
"Why, he lives fifty miles from here. Didn't Mr. Rimmon ask you to be at the office in the morning?"
"Yes, and so I will. I know it is a long ride to Volney, Mr. Calvert's home, but I shall take both Jack and Fairy, and I will fetch around before six in the morning, never fear."
"I am afraid you cannot. What if you shouldn't?"
"I will not fail, mother, so please do not object any longer. Every moment is precious to me. The horses have had their supper, and I will be away in less than three minutes."
It was little wonder if Mrs. Lewis looked with anxious foreboding upon this movement, for it certainly did seem a hopeless undertaking. Little Snap, in his boyish enthusiasm, did not stop to count the cost. Neither did he realize the possible consequence of his absence at that time. Whoever may be inclined to censure him for such a rash attempt must remember that he acted upon the impulse of the moment, and not with the clear judgment he would have shown a few years later. I speak of this now in slight extenuation of the startling result to follow.